The development of FTTH (Fiber To The Home) extends the optical fiber to the user terminal. The user terminal has the most notable features of a huge amount, scattered distribution and low cost requirement. The existing optical-fiber connector is usually installed at the end of the optical fiber in the factory assembly process. The optical-fiber connector manufactured in the factory by the welding technology has high reliability and excellent optical property; however, the factory manufacture has a complex process, is time-consuming, needs the power supply for welding, needs to preheat the welding equipment, and has long-duration and complex operation. For a backbone network, a metropolitan area network, as well as a district level optical fiber access point, the construction condition is better because the optical fiber needs continuous point centralization and is mainly centralized in the machine room, thus resolving the power supply and preheating problem.
However, when having the problems of scattered and huge total amount of FTTH connection, the factory assembly of the optical-fiber connector will face a great challenge. For example, the optical-fiber connector is installed at the end of the optical fiber in the factory, and the optical fiber after connection, having a fixed length, needs excessive length and curl to ensure an enough length, but is still hard to cope with the complex field conditions. If the optical fiber is field installed, because of scattering and small amount of the connection point, inefficiency and high cost of the factory assembly process will limit application of the optical fiber.
Therefore, there also appear some field installable optical-fiber connectors, e.g. the American patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,867, and the Chinese patents ZL200580009235.6 and ZL200580041651.4, which disclose some field installable optical-fiber connectors and belong to the America Corning Cable Systems Co., Ltd. Although the optical-fiber connector disclosed by these patents is field installable, but still requires a special tool for the assembly, resulting in certain restrictions to the application.